U.S. Pat. No. 3,624,631 granted to Marc Chomet et al on Nov. 30, 1971 discloses a tag with a fused deactivatable resonant circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,219 granted to George Jay Lichtblau on Oct. 21, 1975 also discloses a fused deactivatable resonant circuit. U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,524 granted to Lee T. Lamond et al on May 30, 1989 discloses a fused deactivatable resonant circuit with an accelerator that promotes fuse action. The Lamond et al patent points out that the prior art fusible link technique requires a deactivating current which is so intense that the radio frequency signal needed to induce it can cause problems in conforming to the regulations and requirements of the United States Federal Communications Commission. This is due to the fact that the prior art approaches for making fused resonant circuits did not take into account the special requirements of such resonant circuits.
Also made of record is a PCT patent application PCT/DE85/00098 which was opened to public inspection on 12 Sept. 1986 in the name of Max E. Reeb; U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,442 granted to Robert E. Fearon on Dec. 28, 1971; U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,848 granted to Henry J. Martens on Jan. 16, 1973; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,229 granted to John Welch et al on Dec. 13, 1977.
Other examples of prior art fuses are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,645 granted to Thomas F. Harmon et al on June 17, 1980; U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,563 granted to Olav Noerholm on Jan. 20, 1981; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,506 granted to Leon Gurevich on Oct. 10, 1989.